Redford visits the dark side in 'Captain America'

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Robert Redford's first movie role was in the 1965 comedy 'Situation Hopeless...But Not Serious.' Since then he's appeared in nearly 70 movies and directed nine (winning his only Oscar for his first, 'Ordinary People'). Now at 77 he's appearing in his first superhero movie and as a villain no less, in 'Captain America: The Winter's Soldier.' USA TODAY takes a look back at some of Redford's movies.
Patrick Breen, The Arizona Republic

Redford teamed with Dustin Hoffman to play the 'Washington Post' reporters whose stories exposed Watergate and brought down President Richard Nixon in the 1976 film 'All the President's Men.'
Warner Bros. Pictures

In 2006 Redford moved from 'The Horse Whisperer' to providing the voice of Ike the horse in an adaptation of E.B. White's children's classic 'Charlotte's Web.'
Suzy Wood, left, and Kristen Loggia, Paramount Pictures

In 2010 Redford, was back behind the camera as director of 'The Conspirator,' the true story of Mary Surratt, who was tried as a conspirator in the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln. Here he talks with James McAvoy, center, and an unidentified extra on location.
Claudette Barius, The American Film Company

The legendary actor/director is the villain for a change in the blockbuster sequel.

After a long career as an actor in Hollywood — as well as a filmmaker, environmentalist and founder of the Sundance Film Festival — Robert Redford yearned to play a pure, unadulterated villain. The two-time Oscar recipient finally got that chance in the blockbuster sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which has earned more than $101 million since its Friday release.

Redford's Alexander Pierce is the charismatic head of the World Security Council and official in the spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D, but he's also a leader of the evil organization Hydra, which has infiltrated the highest ranks of the government.

Pierce becomes a massive thorn in the side of Captain America (Chris Evans), though his plans are more widespread than one man: He wants to kill thousands of people who potentially stand in the way of Hydra domination by using three deadly high-tech Helicarriers.

There's no mustache twirling needed, Redford says. In fact, Pierce doesn't see what he's doing as villainy at all.

"I love the argument where he's saying, basically, it's almost like Malthusian law: He says, 'Look, we're wasting 20 million people to save 7 billion,' " Redford says. "He thinks it's a brilliant idea. I enjoyed taking a point of view that was so dark by standard thought and yet putting it forward in a way that seemed totally logical."

In co-director Joe Russo's view, it's a vintage Redford role.

"It's fascinating to go to the set and direct him, having grown up on his movies," he says.

Russo's brother, co-director Anthony, recalls telling Scarlett Johansson that Redford was joining her in Winter Soldier. "She just goes, 'Wow! Congratulations.' It's wild to think that (Redford) can be drawn to these types of movies and these roles."

He showed up so prepared, humble and respectful that "it was like his first job," Evans says.

Redford lives for playing different parts, but he concedes that, even at age 77, success has put him in a box. He's grateful to the Russos for seeing that he could play the baddie of a big-budget comic-book movie.

The outlaw adventure Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969 and the emotional drama The Way We Were four years later locked him into certain kinds of characters, Redford says. "Sometimes it's hard to work through that, because you get either labeled or pigeonholed. I've always appreciated the flexibility of doing different roles, and this gave me that chance again."

Winter Soldier also let him revisit one of the favorite parts of his childhood: comic books.

When Redford was growing up in 1940s working-class Los Angeles, his parents tried to steer him toward the library and "more substantial" reading material. But he retreated to the four-color adventures of Captain Marvel, Batman and Green Hornet.

"I used to have to go into my closet with a flashlight to read them, because I didn't want to be caught," Redford says with a laugh. (He doesn't have any vintage Batman comics still lying around his Napa Valley estate: "Those went out with the National Geographics, but I miss them.")

Recognizing that comics were a big part of his early life, he adds, "it stands to reason that late in my life, I would come back around and then think, 'Oh, here's a chance to actually be in one.' "

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Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) asks Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford), head of the World Security Council, for a favor.